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ARS Home » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #125670
Title: FIELD DETERMINATION OF SOIL HYDRAULIC AND SOLUTE TRANSPORT PROPERTIES

Author
item LEE, J - UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE
item AL-JABRI, A - SULTAN QABOOS UNIVERSITY
item HORTON, R - IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY
item Jaynes, Dan

Submitted to: American Society of Agronomy Meetings
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/25/2001
Publication Date: 10/25/2001
Citation: LEE, J., AL-JABRI, A., HORTON, R., JAYNES, D.B. FIELD DETERMINATION OF SOIL HYDRAULIC AND SOLUTE TRANSPORT PROPERTIES. AMERICAN SOCIETY OF AGRONOMY MEETINGS. 2001. CD-ROM. MADISON, WI.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Groundwater contamination by various chemicals is a problem of increasing magnitude. Field characterization of water flow and chemical transport processes is important for prevention of groundwater pollution and remediation of contaminated water resources. Recently, a field method that can determine both hydraulic and chemical transport properties was developed. The method used Time Domain Reflectometry (TDR) and irrigation drippers to measure the soil properties at multiple locations in a low- destructive way. Dripper lines were positioned in two parallel transects with a total of 24 drippers. The experimental procedure consisted of two steps. First, three different flow rates (2, 4, and 8 L/h) of water were applied to determine hydraulic properties based on ponding areas of water. Second, a salt solution was applied to measure solute breakthrough curves using TDR for determining chemical transport properties. The measured properties were saturated hydraulic conductivity, the macroscopic capillary length, mobile water content, mass transfer coefficient, and hydrodynamic dispersion coefficient. We compared these properties measured under conventional tillage and no-till, corn and soybean, and compacted and non-compacted soils to see how these different management systems affect the soil properties.